Hello Vietnam

After spending several months in China getting to know the country, trying to learn the language, it's strange to be back at square one. Like Chinese, Vietnamese is a tonal language. Rather than five tones, it has seven, plus the pronunciation is totally different. Fortunately, the scrip is Latin based, so it's possible to 'read' street signs, menus, hotel names, etc. More important is that the tourist industry here is very built up so English is widely spoken by touts and locals in tourist cities are well acquainted with the ghost face.

My first week here was a series of meetings with new and old friends. It was great to see familiar faces, and it's always different to experience the pace of other travelers. I had friends from LA who only had a limited time in the country, so after landing in Saigon, I found the first bus possible to meet them in the mountain town of Dalat. It was pleasant enough, and a good introduction to a new country. Nothing too crazy, just nice scenery and it's share of coffee shops. It was my first experience of Vietnamese markets, which believe it or not was very similar to other markets except with Vietnamese people and slightly different food. I sampled a variety of local fruits, made eyes with cute vendors....typical backpacker stuff. The coffee here is widely touted as being excellent, at least that's what the shopkeepers kept saying. I think this is hard to determine since it is often served with more milk/water than actual coffee, meaning the taste is usually diluted. It's watered down to a greater extent if you happen to be of the fairer sex. In many shops the ratio of coffee to milk will be adjusted based upon the gender of the customer. Us men, apparently like a stronger coffee flavor, while ladies just can't handle it.

From Dalat it was a sticky, bumpy bus ride over to the beach in Mui Ne. I imagine Mui Ne to be a pretty typical Vietnamese tourist beach town. Beaches, resorts, restaurants, and lots of tourists. For whatever reason this town was mostly traveled by Russians, no idea why. The beach was nice, nothing to get overly excited about, but it was good to chill for a couple of days with some friends. We spent a day going to some local sand dunes and walking along the 'Fairy Stream,' which I think is a bit of a joke. The only reason I can think why people go on this walk is because it's something different to do after spending days lounging. It's a tiny stream, that's populated by an equal amount of cows and hustling kids, both annoying. The cows because they pollute the stream with their waste. The kids because they're constantly harassing you to serve as your guide- naturally in the hope of earning a dollar. On our way back from this little thirty minute walk, multiple kids came up to us asking for money. I explained to them that I also wanted money, but they looked perplexed. My friend took pity on them and offered some anti-bacterial soap, which had them jumping up and down with joy, strange.

Biker Crazy
From the beach it was back to Saigon for a couple of days, where I met a friend visiting from China. My Angeleno friends went back home and I tagged along with my Chinese buddy and her friends. She and her friends are actually American of Caucasian descent but since I met them in China (Shanghai), they're my China friends. We spent a day going to a Cao Dai temple and to the Cu Ci Tunnels. I generally dislike tours. It seems the tour operates have a knack for finding the worst restaurants in the whole country, and chartering particularly bad drivers. It was no different in this case but still worth going to. I can't say that I heard of the Cao Dai religion before coming out here. It seems to be a strange agglomeration of multiple religions, but mostly rooted in Buddhism. Watching them pray was interesting, if not strangely voyeuristic and their temple was right out of a fairy tale. With very bright colors, a painted blue sky on the ceiling, and kitsch galore, I really wonder about their artistic influences. Perhaps it's inspired by a dream, or maybe designed by a third grader. In either case, it's not the typical temple. The tunnels were fascinating for their ingenuity and simple perseverance. i couldn't imagine living and fighting in those conditions (I probably couldn't fit in most of the tunnels also) or being a GI trying to find them out (must have been nearly impossible). How could we have expected to win a war where thousands of people where willing to live for years underground and wage war from there. If that's not dedication, what is? In the evening we went to a funny bar/club called Apocalypse Now. It was weird mix of travelers, western locals, prostitutes, and Anglophiles. Watching the tourist/local interaction was hilarious and stomach turning at the same time. Surely true love was found that night, amidst the pumping beats, dim lights and general humidity.

I spent a couple of days on my own checking out the other sites, like Reconciliation Palace and the War Crimes Museum. The War Crimes museum isn't the easiest place to visit. It's always difficult to see acts of such extreme violence, even harder when they were propagated by your country. It's funny that being here I haven't been too challenged with issues of the War. It's understandable since it's two generations ago. But by simple word association, when I (and this is probably true with most Americans) think of Vietnam, it conjures up images of the war, but I haven't had much discussions about it. Now that I've been here I want to revisit some of my favorite Vietnam War movies (Full Metal Jacket, Apocalypse Now) and McNamara's great commentary in the Fog of War.

Saigon is a pretty active city and the most fun I had was simply walking around and stopping into random bakeries. I think my most exciting times were anytime I wanted to cross the street. I swear this is an adventure sport here, as motorbikes whiz by from every direction. When I finally learn how to drive a bike, I'm going to come back and test my ability, since Saigon is the major leagues of careless biking. But that will just have to wait.

I've met a fair number of travelers who did not have a good experience here. Largely that's because they perceived the locals were just trying to make a buck off them. I totally understand where this feeling comes from. When I explained to a local tour operator that a $60 bike day trip was just too much, she oscillated between being very upset for me that I wasn't going to experience this wonderful tour and upset for her that she wasn't going to make money off me. It's a little bit unsettling when you think that ever person is talking to you in the effort to make a dollar, but I think this is to be expected in a poor country, especially one with so many travelers. I've found that it's not so hard to get beyond this feeling, by avoiding tourist thrift markets, and getting out of the main tourist areas I find the reaction of the locals to be totally different.

So I'm going South again, spending the last couple of weeks in the Mekong Delta.